Alicante is in no way representative of Spain. It should be very close to the bottom of the list, if not at the very bottom.
> I have a high german salary and chose to live here in Spain because quality of life is much higher than in central Europe, including Baden-Württemberg, Czechia, Poland, etc.
Guess what, most people working in Spain don't have "high German salaries".
Also, the average engineer in Alicante makes way less than 40k. Actually, there's a ~20% chance that they don't have a job in the first place. The average senior engineer makes about 45k in the most expensive areas of the country, before paying ~20-25% of it in taxes.
Keep in mind that 43% of Spaniards save less than €100 a month, with 23% of the population not saving any money at all. https://www.europapress.es/economia/finanzas-00340/noticia-4...